Paddler wrecks, SS Central America and treasure hunters

[Paulrjordan]

Hi Leighton . Just spent a very enjoyable hour reading all about the
recovery of the sidewheeler "Arabia". This brings to mind a book
I've just finished reading. Gary Kinder's "Ship of Gold in the Deep
Blue Sea : The History & Discovery of America's Richest Shipwreck"
It's absolutely fascinating reading, has the thrill of a mystrery
novel and contains the most vivid and frightening account of a
shipwreck I've ever read.

Quoting from the jacket:
"In one of the most exciting adventure stories of our time, Gary
Kinder combines maritime disaster with visionary underwater
technology. In September 1857, the SS Central America, a side-wheel
steamer carrying passengers returning from the gold fields of
California, went down during a hurricane off the Carolina coast. It
would be the worst peacetime disaster at sea in American history,
claiming more than 400 lives and 21 tons of gold. In the 1980s a
maverick engineer named Tommy Thompson set out to find the wreck of
the Central America and salvage its treasure from the ocean floor.
Kinder reconstructs the terror of the Central America's last days and
he goes on to chronicle Thompson's epic quest for the lost vessel."

What makes this story all the more remarkable is the tenacity of
Thompson and his team and their ultimate success in engineering a
unique device to recover the treasure from a record depth of 8,000
feet.

I had the pleasure of recently spending a day with veteran museum
ship model builder, Bill Ballenger, who was commissioned to build a
1:48 Museum scale replica of the SS "Central America" for
presentation by the financial backers to Tommy Thompson, the young
entrepreneur/engineer who master minded the entire recovery project.

If you want a good adventure narrative, see if you can obtain a copy
of Gary Kinder's book..I guarantee you'll have difficulty putting it
down! Copies are widely available on the net for as little as US$3.00
although the original published price for the hard cover edition was
far in excess of that.

You can read more about the SS "Central America" and her fabulous
treasure at:

http://www.shipofgold.com/treasure.html

Regards

PJ
Victoria, BC, Canada.